Awards

I jumped with joy when I discovered pennywort at a local Asian grocery. They have been carrying it all along, but only now do they have their English names on them. Good for me. I grabbed a pack, rushed home and called my mom for my favourite recipe that I enjoyed growing up.

Indian pennywort is one of those remarkable herbs with amazing medicinal values. In Ayurvedha, it is referred to as ‘the brain tonic’. Amidst others properties, it is believed to enhance brain function in terms of memory and concentration.

Our keera kaara amma would bring pennywort during summer, just before our annual examinations. ‘Good for their memory’, ‘They will get good scores’, she used to say. Even with its near-magical properties, you cannot become an Einstein by eating pennywort few days before your exams. Try telling that to her :).

It brings a smile just thinking about that old lady; loud and boisterous on the outside, but kind and gentle on the inside. There was a personal touch, even though she was just getting her business done. Hard to find these days.

Heat 2 tsp of oil over medium flame, and add the first seven ingredients in the order mentioned, reserving about 10 curry leaves. Sauté till pennywort has wilted and lost its raw smell. Cool and grind to a smooth paste.

Heat remaining oil, splutter mustard seeds, and add rest of the curry leaves, asafoetida, tamarind paste, the ground mixture, salt and 1 cup of water. Whisk everything together and let it boil for at least 10 minutes. The gravy should be nice and thick. Enjoy with warm rice and more gingelly/sesame oil. Refrigerate the leftovers in a well sealed container for about a week.

Be warned if you are new to this green; it has a strong taste and aroma. Cooking with freshly ground spices and tamarind mellows it down quite a bit. You will hardly notice that you are enjoying a medicinal herb. This is my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging. The team at The Daily Tiffin is hosting this week.

My Dad only urged the importance of this when me and my brother were in school days, he used to give a vallarai tablet for us daily..Never seen the leaves and heard about any dishes using that..This is good recipie that everyone can adopt..Tx for sharing a wonderful and useful one..

hmmm, I never heard of these either...will have to talk to mom. Our keerai lady also was precious. She would come every other day and coax us into buying greens. Apart from my mother I think she was the one instrumental in making me like my greens. She has stopped coming by now though. Now it feels like a luxury to have some one come to your door step with fresh produce.

I`d like to get them here but I think it is not available or I did not know the name to it... will look out for Pennywort since I know the name now. Looks too too delicious and yes, I do need the memory boost.

BTW... when I was new to cooking, I called my mother-in-law for Vallarai Keerai masiyal and made them. My husband could`nt have it and so it was feed to the roadside dog which ran away just by smelling it.

ha ha... i remember eating fresh leaves during exam times;) and we had these peenyworts growing wildly in our play ground at school. my fav has always been brahmi tambli:) now i have got another ecipe to try with peenywort. thanks sug :)

Oh wow, never knew we get these leaves here. We make a tambli of it also. I remember my grandma used to make oil of it, very cooling and good for the hair. I guess all kids got that gyaan abt the memory bit :D..

Hi suganya,I've been looking at ur blog n god its like some treasure to me since i'm very much confused about the names of the vegetables n cereals here in US..as i'm jus arrived..could u pl give me some keerai names n also cereals like kambu..ragi..i saw hulled millet n confused wat it is..hope u'll help me..thanks in advance

Dear Prabha, I understand it may be confusing to identify foreign greens. The best place to search for answers is forums like IndusLadies or AnotherSubContinent. For eg, I learnt a lot about greens from this thread. Good luck!